The Canadian Railroader Weekly. Vol. 3 No. 18: April 30 , 1921

HAY 3 1921

April 30, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

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April 30, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Elijah Progress Stumbles On a
Strange Discovery

By KENNEDY CRONE

E LIJAH PROGRESS, a mild sort of person who
meant very well, sought an interview with the
Board of Directors of Community, Inc. He
took off his hat, adjusted his spectacles and bowed
timidly to the switchboard girl in the outer office.
A card on the counter said that her name was “In-
formation.”

“Mi ss Infor mation, my_dear,’Mie said, “wouldyou
be good enough to tell me if the Chief Clerk to the
Assistant of the third Secretary to the Ninth Vice-

the question of whether my plan will pay handsome
dividends on the cold cash invested is an important
one with the Board, I have had it financially ex-
amined to the last point in decimals by a bookkeeper
friend of mine who breathes icicles with figures on
them.”

“Aw, hire a hall!” quoth the girl. “I guess'you
think we’ve got nuthin’ to do around here but listen
to nuts. I believe you’re a dirty hypocrite, an’ I
shouldn’t be talkin’ to you. What’s the game?”

President can be seen?”

“Fairly well,” she answered, pausing in her labor
on a cushion cover with blue roses growing on sticks
of pink dandelion. “His right eye is bunged up, as
he was at one of them cabaret riots last night, but
otherwise he is mainly visible, Marmaduke. An’ can
that ‘dearie’ stuff. It don’t fizz on me. I’m not
that kind of a gii’l, an’, besides, you look like a cheap
skate, anyway.”

Progress thought of saying something about a
desert island and the only female in the world, but
his natural mildness checked him, and he said, in-
stead :

“I would like very much to have a few words
with the gentleman. Would you please send in my
card?”

“Nuthin’ doin’ ”, replied the girl. “He’s terrible
busy. His wife is trimmin’ him to a finish on the
’phone just now, an’ he has stacks an’ stacks of let-
ters an’ deputations. Call back around 1926.”

“But, really,” persisted Progress, “I have press-
ing business with the Board, and I have only one
short life to get past all the Secretaries and Vice-
Presidents. Community, Inc., has need of my plan.
It will benefit all of us, you included. I admit that
I am not a commercial expert — F.O.B. might mean
‘Feed Our Babies’ for all I know, though I guess
it hardly means that— and I think, rather, in the in-
exact coinage of humanity. Knowing, however, that

“The game?” echoed Progress.

“Yep, the game. What graft are you gettin’ on
this grand idea of yours. Who’s'-slipphPu’ ^ou the
mazuma on the side? Beat it!”

“But, my dear — .”

“Beat it! If you feel like it, come around in
1963.” -

Progress went slowly downstairs, feeling more
heated than he had felt for some time. He censured
himself for getting out of hand; he was sure it
wasn’t right of him to think unkindly of anyone.
But he only got hotter and hotter. It was a shock-
ing condition to be in. He tried to count ten, but
only got up to six, and then suddenly ran into the
lane at the back of the office building and heaved
a brick through the president’s window on the sec-
ond storey. Almost immediately a cold chill ran
through him; he hoped he had not hurt anybody.

The President’s head popped out through the
broken pane and a flustered President demanded:

“Who threw that brick?”

“I did,” said Progress. “I’m sorry in a way, but
I can’t patiently wait a thousand years to see you,
you know.”

“It’s all right,” said the President. “My private
door is the second. on the left from the main office.
I’m glad to see you. Come on up!” .

<

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

Canadian Railroads
Into One Big System

LORD SHAUGHNESSY’S SUGGESTED REMEDY
FOR GRAVE PROBLEI I— OPERATION BY
C.P.R. UNDER CONTRACT— DEFICITS
OVERCOME BY ECONOMIES

Lord Shaughnessy has prepared
and given to the public his personal
view of the railway problem in Can-
ada, prefacing his statement with the
following letter addressed to the
Prime Minister:

Montreal, April 6th, 1921.

Dear Mr. Meighen, — National rail-
way affairs are, I am sure, to you a
source of constant anxiety. To my
mind the railway question, involv-
ing, as it does such an enormous
draft on the annual revenue of the
country with no prospect of any im-
provement in the near future, is the
most momentous problem before our
country at this time.

I fear very much that the Grand
Trunk transaction will prove disap-
pointing and expensive, and if it
were my case I would go a long way
to secure the consent of the Grand
Trunk shareholders to the abroga-
tion of the statutory contract.

I am enclosing a memorandum giv-
ing in rough outline my opinion as
to the only process through which
the atmosphere can be cleared. Some
people, whether they believe it or
not, will find in my suggestions a
selfish desire on the part of the
Canadian Pacific to control the rail-
way situation. The Canadian Pacific
- bogey 'has. served its turn on every
occasion in the past thirty-five
years, when schemes were being pro-
moted with disregard of the cost to
the country.

The Canadian Pacific has no fish
to fry, and I am not sure that my
plan would be viewed with favor by
the executive, the

— ^ j^VSrybody connected

with the company would prefer to
see its status undisturbed, but it is
impossible to accept with equanimi-
ty a situation which makes a de-
mand on the public treasury of about
$200,000 per day, without any com-
pensating advantage, if there be any
possibility of improving it.

My memorandum, as you will ob-
serve, merely brings up to date on
very much the same lines a similar
paper that I prepared about the end
of 1917 and sent to Sir Robert Bor-
den. He feared, I imagine, that as
my plan would apparently create a
Canadian Pacific monopoly in trans-
portation it would not be acceptable
to the country. Even if there were
foundation for that theory at the
time, the current of events since
1917 may have resulted in a decided
change of sentiment.

I am submitting the memorandum
to you with the best intentions in the
world for such consideration as you
""may think it deserves.

Yours very truly,

(Sgd.) SHAUGHNESSY.
Rt. Hon. Arthur Meighen, P.C.
Premier, Ottawa, Ont.

ONE NATIONAL SYSTEM
Lord Shaufthnessy’s Plan for
Canadian Railways

In 1917 I prepared a memorandum
analyzing the railway situation in
Canada as it then existed and sug-
gesting a plan of dealing with it,
which I read to our directors and
subsequently forwarded to Sir Rob-
ert Borden for the consideration of
himself and his Cabinet. Evidently
my views did not appeal to the
Government nor to the advisers
from whom -the Government at
that time received its inspiration
on railway affairs.

Meantime, conditions have sub-
stantially changed. Capital ex-

penditures of considerable amount
that might have been avoided have
been incurred, and the deficits re-
sulting from the operation of the
weaker lines have increased by
leaps and bounds, so that the sug-
gestions contained in the memoran-
dum of 1917 would not now be
available.

It was not my purpose then, nor
is it now, to discuss the railway
policy of successive Governments,
federal and provincial, during the
past thirty -five years. In most
cases the legislation defining the
policy received the approval of the
electorate at the polls, and there-
fore if serious and expensive blund-
ers were made we should be pre-
pared to pocket our chagrin and
foot the bills with equanimity. We
have., however, the obligation to try
to discover and develop plans that
may serve to relieve the Canadian
people from some part of the dis
tressing and dangerous financial
results now in evidence and which
threaten the future.

Canada has now about 40.000
miles of railway lines. Of the lines
included in this mileage approxi-
mately 37 per cent, earn annually
sufficient mbney to pay all inter-
est charges and to give a return on
the share capital; 54 per cent, fad
to earn enough to pay their work-
ing expenses and are consequently
operated at a loss; and 9 per cent,
earn interest on some of their
major securities but have nothing
toapply as dividend on the fhare
^capital.

Grand Trunk System.

Included in the last mentioned is
the Grand Trunk Railway System,
which is international in charac-
ter, owning or controlling import-
ant railways in the United States
with termini at Chicago, Portland
and elsewhere. Serving consider
able portions of the Provinces of
Ontario and Quebec; the Grand
Trunk System enjoys a substantia:
volume of Canadian traffic, but its
international business yields the
greater part of its gross revenue.
Relieved of the handicap that was
imposed by the Grand Trunk Pa-
cific the parent company should, in
normal times, be in a position to
pay the annual interest on most of
its securities that take precedence
of the common stock, but a return
on the common stock would appear
to be exceedingly remote in any
circumstances. This railway sys-
tem is, however, of national im-
portance, and it woul<J be unfor-
tunate from our Canadian stand-
point if, hampered by the methods
and ambitions of previous manage-
ments, the company should be kept
in a state of embarrassment and
should be prevented from carrying
out plans for increased efficiency
and economy. It would be still
more unfortunate if by any process
the Grand Trunk should be placed
in a position that would have the
effect of destroying, either on sen-
timental grounds or others, the
movement through Canada of in-
ternational traffic to and from its
feeders in United States territory.

Even at this advanced stage it
Would be wise for the Dominion
Government to drop all measures
looking to the acquisition or con-
trol of the Grand Trunk, to relieve
that company of all obligations in
connection with the Grand Trunk
Pacific and to grant easy terms
covering a period of years for the

repayment of any amounts ad-
vanced by the Government to the
Grand Trunk or secured on the

credit of the Government in the
last two years.

The Transcontinental Line.

The National Transcontinental-
Grand Trunk Pacific scheme of a
line from Moncton to Prince Rup-
ert was a deplorable blunder in its
inception and execution. Doubt-
less the Grano^Trunk objected to
the line from Cochrane east and
only yielded under pressure, but

be eastern and western termini of
the line having been once deter-
mined, the Government was, 1
know, guided by the advice and

wishes of the Grand Trunk man-
agement of that day in fixing the
location and standard of construc-
tion. It was pointed out that four-
tenths grades and light curvature

would make for economical opera-
tion, because of the increased
weight of the train that could be
hauled over the line by a single
engine. The theory was all right,
but the basic essential was ignored.
The traffic was not available and
would not be available for a long
period of time to furnish loads for
these heavy trains, and therefore
the advantages could not be util-
ized unless the practice were pur-
sued of holding traffic until a suf-
ficient amount was accumulated,
with the consequent delay and ex-
pense and the dissatisfaction of
patrons. A railway quite sufficient
for any traffic likely to develop
for many years could have been
built in less than half the time and
at a saving of 50 per cent, to 60 per
cent, in cost, and as business in-
creased and revenue improved the
requisite changes to meet new de-
mands could be carried out, as in
the case of the Canadian Pacific.

Recognizing the National Trans-
continernal portion of the route as
a national incubus the Borden Gov-
ernment soon after coming into
power relieved the Grand Trunk
Company from financial responsi-
bility with reference to it, and the
burden fell on the country.

Grand Trunk Pacific.

The extravagantly constructed
Grand Trunk Pacific with its ter-
minal at Prince Rupert proved a
most disappointing enterprise, be-
cause over most of the route there
was no traffic to yield revenue suf-
ficient to meet the interest charges
on its mandatory securities, or, in-
deed, to cover the cost c-f mainten-
ance and operation, meantime these
interest charges, as well as any
operating deficits, had to be met
at regularly recurring oeriods, and
the Grand Trunk Company could
not have shouldered the burden
without incurring financial dis-
aster.

It was apparent that in the cir-
cumstances it would be necessary
for the Dominion Government to
give relief even to the extent of
taking over the Grand Trunk Pa-
cific. This was finally determined
upon, but coupled with it was the
decision of the Dominion Govern-
ment to acquire the Grand Trunk
Railway System as well. Clearly
this was a mistake, as all the ad
vantages that would result to the
Grand Trunk Pacific and other por-
tions of the Canadian National Rail-
ways could have been secured by a
traffic, agreement.

By its Grand Trunk policy the
Government is unnecessarily adding
to its burdens, and the Grand
Trunk System, as I have stated be-
fore, would now and hereafter be
a much greater asset to Canada if
privately owned and operated than
it can possibly be if merged into
the National System.

While the transfer of the Grand
Trunk Pacific to the Government
of Canada and the consequent re- '
lief of the Grand Trunk Railway
Company would appear to be a jug-
handled transaction, it is not with
out its justification, because when

the Dominion Government was
framing its policy with reference
to the route and character of the
line the objections and, indeed
dangers of the policy were fre-
quently pointed Qut to the Govern-
ment by those who had the re-
quisite knowledge of the country
and the technical experience to en-
title their opinion and advice to
more consideration than they re-
ceived. The Government cannot es-
cape its share of the blame.

The Canadian Northern.

The Canadian Northern System
was by over-expansion made a
hopeless business proposition. With-
out wishing to criticize the policy
pursued by the company it is evi-
dent that the future of the property
was founded on the assumption
that the prosperity and expansion
which Canada enjoyed for a period
ot eight or ten years would con-
tinue indefinitely, and the mileage
of the system was increased year
by year until the annual interest
charges of the company reached a
sum out of all proportion to pres
ent or prospective revenue. Had
the promoters confined themselves
to the territory between Lake Su-
perior and Edmonton their venture
would have been of advantage to
the country and profitable to them-
selves, but their exploits east of
Rort Arthur and west of Edmonton
were untimely and disastrous. It ,
became clear that the companv
must collapse unless kept alive by
very large grants from the public
treasury. For this there could be
no justification, and the only other
alternatives for the Government
were to permit default and liquida-
tion or to take the property over
“" der the. terms of the Act of 1914.
the Dominion Government, having
become a partner in the enterprise
by accepting- 40 per cent, of the
share capital at a cost to the coun-
try of $57,000,000 in subsidies and
guarantees, and being guarantor of
the company’s securities to a large
amount, default and a receivership -
would have had their disadvant^
ages. While it is probable that in
the circumstances the country’s in-
terests were best served by the ^
acquisition of The property, it Jjj
strikes one that the legislation re- '
lating to the transaction would
have been the subject of less cri-
ticism had provision been made for
the payment of a very substantial
honorarium to the men who had de-
voted nearly twenty years of their
lives to the establishment and de-
velopment of the enterprise instead
of the creation of a tribunal to de- '
termine the value of something
that in the minds of the large sec-
tion of the public was valueless.

With the ownership or control of
the Intercolonial, National Trans- ^
continental, Canadian Northern, and
Grand Trunk Pacific lines vested in
the Dominion Government, the Can-
adian people are now the proprietors
of about 17,000 miles of railway,
with a capital investment of say
$850,000,000. and an annual interest
charge of something like $34,000,000.

In the annual interest charges noth-
ing is included for the Intercolonial
and Prince Edward Island Railways,
because these have been with us for
so long a period as unproductive and
expensive property, nor for the 'Na-
tional Transcontinental absorbed in
the^ Consolidated Fund.

There is no rolling stock equip-
ment nor are there terminal yards,
freight facilities, repair shops or
other requirements commensurate
with a system of this magnitude,
and the cost of providing them will
be very great indeed.

Operating Revenues.

According to the brief return sub-
mitted to Parliament a few days ago,
the operating revenue of the Cana-
dian National Railways, including
the Grand Trunk Pacific, for the
year 1920, was as follows: From pas-
sengers, $23,713,834; from freight,
$90,982,832. The train mileage re-

April 30, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

quired to earn this money was as
follows: Passenger trains, 13,322,587
miles; freight trains, 24,485,286
miles. In the same period Canadian
Pacific earned from passengers $49,-
125,738; and from carriage of freight,
$145,303,399; with passenger train
mileage 20,538,038, and freight train
mileage 26,281,627.

It will be gathered from these
figures that the train mileage on the
Canadian National System is out of
all proportion to the revenue, taking
the Canadian Pacific as a standard.
Were it possible to effect a reduction
in train mileage on the National
System to make the ratio of train
miles to earnings same as that on
the Canadian Pacific, the saving in
transportation alone would represent
upwards of $22,000,000 per annum.
This, however, is out of the question
because, while there might be a sub-
stantial shrinkage of train mileage
without serious public inconvenience,
the great mileage of the National
System to be served and the limited
traffic available prevent a proper
relation between traffic and train
miles.

It is to be observed, however, that
the Canadian Pacific handled traffic
representing revenue 71 per cent, in
excess of the Canadian National,
with an additional cost of transpor-
tation of only 13 per cent. This is
accounted for to some extent by the
greater expense per train mile for
rMns’port on the National System.
In this unit of operating expenses
there would have been, a saving of
about $6,500,000 if the Canadian Pa-
cific basis had been reached.

Maintenance Costs.

Maintenance of way and struc-
tures cost the Canadian National
about $43,000,000 for 17,000 miles of
railway, or an average of $2,520 per
mile. \On the same account the Can-
adian Pacific expended $32,574,000
on 13,402 miles of railway, an aver-
age of about $2,430 per mile. Doubt-
less considerable expense was in-
volved in bringing to a higher stand-
ard main lines of the National Sys-
tem that had been permitted to run
down, but so large a percentage- of
the system consists of unimportant
branches with light traffic where
maintenance charges should be com
paratively low that the average for
'he whole system would appear to
be rather excessive. If it be as
sumed that destroyed and obsolete
cars and locomotives were replaced
m accordance with the Canadian Pa-
cific practice, the expenditure for
maintenance of equipment was not
excessive based on the Canadian Pa-
cific average cost in the same year
per locomotive and per car. Taking
into account the extent of the Sys*
tern, the traffic and general ex-
pense of the Canadian National
Railways are not excessive.

If the very large annual deficit re-
sulting from the operation of these
lines is to be reduced it must come
either from a substantial increase in
revenue from traffic or a shrinkage
in the cost of operating.

If immigration and settlement are
not restricted by legislation or other
conditions, there will in the ordinary
course of events be a continuing
growth of traffic, but at best this
growth is apt to be slow and quite
insufficient to make any important
impression on the annual results for
some years to come.

Meanwhile the Canadian people
will be compelled year after . year
to raise, by taxation, sufficient
money to meet the appalling annual
deficits, unless by some process the
cost of the maintenance and opera-
tion of the National Lines can be
brought to much lower figures. This,
however, would not appear to be
practicable, as the National System
engaged in competition for traffic
with another very strong railway
company would be at serious dis-
advantage unless in train service,
equipment and in other respects it

offered the public facilities ap-
proaching those obtainable else-
where.

Reduction of Rates.

I have made no reference to the
economies that will result from a
revision of the schedule of wages
and working conditions, which are on
a fictitious basis and must be amend-
ed, because concurrent with this will
be a reduction in the rates for the
carriage of commodities that are es-
sential if the country's basic indus-
tries are to be stimulated or indeed
kept alive.

The situation is a serious one and
almost hopeless unless some plan can
be devised that will promptly and
effectively bring to this National
Railway System additional financial
strength and sustenance.

With but one set of shareholders,
the Canadian Pacific Railway Com-
pany is really two separate entities.
The shareholders have their rail-
ways constituting the Canadian
system of over 14,000 miles, with
Lake, River and Pacific Coast
Steamship Lines, express and other
accessories whose income is included
in last year's total of $216,000,000,
and the net revenue of $33,000,000.
And then they have their other as-
sets that are dealt with in a separate
account, consisting of their owner-
ship in railway companies in the
United States that are under separ-
ate management but that inter-
change traffic with the Company at
the frontier, the ocean steamship
lines, lands still owned and payments
accruing on lands already sold, min-
ing and other interests, in all rep-
resenting a substantial sum from
which revenue is derived to supple-
ment the distribution to the share-
holders from the proceeds of the
railway operations.

If by some arrangement with the
Company these assets could be seg-
regated and the railway property
added to the Government System
that I have just described, the Sys-
tem would comprise 31,000 miles of
railway with a considerable amount
of parallel lines unimportant or use-
less.

Price to be Paid C. P. R.

The consideration to be given the
shareholders of the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company in exchange tor
the properties above defined would,
I imagine, be in the nature of an
undertaking by the Government of
Canada to pay to the shareholders
in perpetuity a fixed annual dividend
on the share capital, to be supple-
mented by a further payment when
the whole property was yielding a
specified return.

The extraneous assets of the Can-
adian Pacific would be transferred
o and administered by Trustees or
by a subsidiary Company with an-
other Board of Directors, so that the
Directors of the Railway Company
would be interested only in the ad-
ministration of the trust placed in
their hands by the people of Canada.
There would be no motive for self-
ishness, if such a thing were pos-
sible in the circumstances. The in-
come on their shares being fixed
and unchangeable, excepting as
above provided, the Canadian Pacific
shareholders could receive no ad-
vantage from preferential treatment
given to any particular portion of
the Railway System. The Director-
ate would have every incentive for
wise, prudent and busifiess-like ad-
ministration. 4

Of course there are many details
that would have to be worked out,
but it is not necessary to refer to
them here.

Now, having brought these pro
perties together, we are faced with
the most serious problem of all,
namely, that of administration and
operation. Political management
would be impossible, because among
other reasons policy and manage-
ment must have the elements of con-
tnuity and could not be changed with
each change of Government without
ruinous results. While I have great

regard for the opinion of my friends.
Sir Henry Drayton and Mr. Ac-
worth, I do not agree that their pian
of management would eliminate the
danger of political interference, be-,
cause it could be changed at any
session of Parliament. My sugges-
tion would be that if an agreement
with the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company on the lines that I have
indicated were found feasible, tha:
Company would be used under the
terms of a contract approaching per-
petuity in its duration to administer
and operate the whole property for
account of the Canadian people. 1
mention the Canadian Pacific be
cause the magnitude, scope and
variety of its operations compel a
comprehensive organization, and thi«
could be supplemented by judicious
selections from the staffs of the oth-
er companies to meet the demands of
the larger work.

Savings to be Effected.

On the returns for the year 1920,
the gross earnings of the combined
system would be $342,283,000 and
the operating expenses $345,973,000,
a deficit in operation of approxi-
mately $3,700,000. The annual fixed
charges of the whole system, includ-
ing the dividend on Canadian Pa-
cific Preference Stock, would be.
$47,490,000, or a total deficit of
about $51,190,000.

Essential expenditures on capital
account from time to time will tend
to swell these charges, but by the
addition of the Canadian Pacific with
its ample rolling stock equipment, its
splendid terminals and other facili-
ties, in- the use of which the whole
system would participate, important
expenditures which could not be
avoided in other circumstances would
be rendered unnecessary.

To this amount of $51,190,000 per
annum, of course it would be neces-
sary to add the guaranteed dividend
on Canadian Pacific common stock
hereafter to be determined, but if we
. set aside an estimated amount for
that purpose the total deficit, includ-
ing everything, would be approxi-
mately $80,000,000. In the light of
these figures present conditions
would not be improved, but then
we must take into account the sav-
ing that would result from the con-
solidation by the elimination of un
necessary train service and of dupli-
cate work at important terminals
and at other points; the restriction
of maintenance work on unnecessary
duplicate lines; the decrease in gen-
eral as well as traffic and agency
expenditures; the common use of
cars and locomotives, reducing to a
minimum capital expenditures on
that account with greater economy
in the maintenance of equipment and
the stoppage of outlay in many other
directions.

In 1920 the operating cost of the
combined system was about 101 per
cent, of the gross earnings. The Can-
adian Pacific cost was 84.7 per cent
• of its gross earnings. If the average
for the combined system could be
brought to the Canadian Pacific level
it would represent a saving in the
cost of operating of about $56,000.-
000 per annum. There would still
be a deficit of $24,000,000 oer an-
num, but for a number of reasons

1920 was an expensive year*
see no reason why the opera^H
ratio should not be brought as low
as 80 per cent, at most, which would
reduce the total deficit to eleven or
twelve million dollars. To catch up
with this a growing volume of traf-
fic would have to be relied upon,
but with immigration settlement and
development this should come in
gradual stages, and the saving to
the country in the meantime would
be very large.

In connection with these transpor-
tation matters there are sure to be
miscalculations and disappointments,
but the consolidation that I have
outlined above would appear to be
the most logical and economical pol-
icy.

Besides the National Railways.
Canada would then have an Inter-
national group consisting of the
Grand Trunk, Canada Southern, Tor-
onto, Hamilton & Buffalo, and Pere
Marquette Railways of 4,600 miles,
and other lines of local or provincial
character. These latter lines may
well be left to work out their own
salvation, and if they require aid, the
provinces, having been relieved of
their major liabilities under their
guarantees, can well afford to give it.

I am not giving expression to
these views as chairman, director or
shareholder of the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company, and it is quite
possible that neither my fellow-di-
rectors nor the shareholders would
be in accord. The Canadian Pacific,
with its low capitalization and ca-
pacity for securing and handling a
vast volume of traffic, should as
time passes yield a larger return to
its owners than at any time in the
past. Indeed, about this there is lit-
tle room for doubt, but with a satis-
factory annual dividend guaranteed
in perpetuity by the Canadian Gov-
ernment the shareholders could prob-
ably be induced to forego their
speculative benefits, as their share®
would then have the security and
stability of Government bonds.

It is my sole purpose to assist if
I can in the solution of what is be-
yond doubt the most serious and
menacing problem that faces our
country, and to frankly outline the
policy that I would adopt and carry

o effect if the responsibility were
upon me to act as the representative
and trustee of the Canadian people
in safeguarding the present and fu-
ture railway transportation interests
of the Dominion, and in endeavoring
to stop, or at any rate minimize the
vast demands on the treasury and
the credit of the country that are
pretty sure to be made yearly if the
present policy is continued.

Quebec city hears rumors that
the Canadian Government is about
to turn over the Intercolonial Rail-
way to the C. P. R. for operation.

About 1,500 employees of West
Toronto packing houses are on strike'"'
rather than accept a 12% per cent,
cut. in wages.

The W. R. Broth Company, Limited

DEALERS IN

DRY GOODS, WOOLLENS AND CXRPETS
v WHOLESALE

MONTREAL

Cor. Notre Dtme Went end St. Helen Streets
Cor. St. Helen Sc Recollet Sts.

TORONTO CALGARY

60-68 Bey Street
61-47 Wellington Street.

Cor. Eighth Avenue end Second
Street West.

/

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

industrial Harmony and the
Whitley Councils

( From Our Own Correspondent).

Glasgow.

A RE we getting any nearer the
so-much desired industrial
harmony? Where is the rem-
edy to be sought? Inasmuch as
practically the whole world has been
impoverished by reasons of the war,
it would seem that we shall all have
to work more and spend less in order
to overtake arrears of production
and restore our prosperity. But, if
retrenchment and even sacrifice are
called for, surely all should shoulder
their share of the burden.

Workers are not likely to listen
to arguments for reduced wages un-
less there is a guarantee of reduced
prices and reduced profits, and these
are aspects of industry in which the
workers as yet have no voice. In
whatever form, ways and means
must be de-
vised to estab-
lish mutual con-
fidence and to
promote a com-
munity of inter-
est between all
s e c t i o ns en-
gaged in indus-
try.

Of course such
a proposi t i o n
will be ridiculed by both the reac-
tionary type of employer and the
extremists in the ranks of labor. The
first is puffed up with a sense of
his power. He can afford to wait.

Starvation and Injustice.

He knows that though a strike or
lock-out would spell temporary loss
to him, it would ere long spell star-
vation and capitulation for his work-
men, to say nothing of depleting
their Unions' funds.

He might therefore even welcome
such an opportunity to strengthen
his ascendancy. But injustice bears
within it the seeds of revolt, and
driving men to starvation may prove
a highly perilous form of playing
with fire.

Upon the other side are fanatics
who will accept nothing short of the
complete demolition of the capitalist
system and the expropriation of all
Existing interests therein.

To such, co-partnership is a de-
lusion and a snare; Whitleyism is of
the devil.

We must, however, remember
that, whatever may be the demerits
of the capitalist system, it is the
growth of centuries, and out whole
industrial fabric is based upon it.
Solving Particular Problems.

No cut-and-dried schemes are of
any use at this juncture. Our in-
dustries are too varied and their or-
ganisation too complex to admit of
general treatment.

The obvious first step is that each
industry shall itself endeavor to
work out the solution of its own
particular problems.

This was the principle underlying
the Whitley Committee's Report sub-
mitted a few days ago, and ignored
or rejected by most of the interests
concerned, though working happily
in several industries.

If the plans for forming joint bod-
ies of employers and employed,
which were then put forward as re-
commendations, were made compul-
sory, there would be provided at
least opportunity for the various
sections concerned in each industry
to come together in conference, in
the works in the district and in the
National Industrial Councils. The
various interests might or might not
blend harmoniously.

Only the most fatuous optimist
would expect so happy a result to
come quickly or easily. The pros-
pects of success would depend upon
two things in particular; first, the
measure of good-will and genuine de-
sire to pull together; second, the
degree of statesmanship possessed
by those taking leading parts on
either side.

The Non-Manual Workers.

It is upon some such lines that
the various organizations of the non-
manual workers have been working
but with little degree of success.
The employers have, in most cases,
while improving conditions, viewed
with suspicion the combination of
their clerks or commercial staffs.

Recognition has not been granted
and Whitley Councils denied the em-
ployees.

When a rupture was threatened ‘
and a crisis reached such as with the
Scottish Bankers' Association and
the Guild of Insurance Officials the
Ministry of Labor was powerless to
bring the parties together.

It is felt that the time has come
for the middle class worker to awak-
en to his duties and responsibilities.
These duties cannot be discharged
by blindly taking sides, but by an
intelligent realization of the true
position and its possibilities.

The urgent need of society to-day
is a new perspective. We are told
that the old system is dead.

Some employers ardently believe
in its resurrection; some workers
seek to replace it by disastrous ex-
periments.

We are offered the alternative of
revolution or reaction. But the old
system is not dead; there is emerg-
ing from it, not the fanciful dream
of the theorist but a brighter sem-
blance of itself, the old system purg-
ed of its defects.

Worker and Employer.

The non-manual worker the brain
workers, the middle-class man, call
him by what name you like, is going
to take his part in bringing about
the new conditions and helping to-
wards industrial harmony for the
good of all.

One is tempted to ask the ques-
tion as to what are to be functions

of these new organizations spring-
ing into life on every side?

They have a direct relation to the
intimate questions of salary and
working conditions.

Their fundamental idea is the idea
of self-preservation.

But they go farther than that.
Serious as are the grievances of
the middle-class worker, he is not
of the type that organizes upon
grievances. There has never been a
time when such grievances did not
exist.

Yet organization has been long
in coming. Attempts at organiza-
tion of course there were, but they
were based upon the assumption of
an innate hostility between worker
and employer, and could not appeal
to men who completely rejected this
assumption.

Sense of Responsibility.

The conditions produced by the
war, by joining economic pressure to
a growing sense of responsibity,
have given life and direction to the
movement.

The primary need is the. organiza-
tion of the moderate forces of the
country. With the organization of
the Salariat the whole labor problem
imperceptibly changed.

The truth is that without his own
volition the clerical worker is being
thrust into a position of the highest
strategical importance.

Yet at the very outset there is the
danger of his emulating others in
their mistakes.

Although the Salariat believes
that its own interests coincide with
the interests of the employer, yet
the reaction following the employers
misguided policy has led the Salariat
to trifle with dangerous theories.

Ignorance and prejudice is the
cause of the class war.

Let employers and workers alike
face the facts boldly, and strive for
some common ground where the
capitalist and the worker join in a
relation of real partnership.

The latest returns show that or-
ganized non-manual workers are
now well over one million and this
growing power is being added to
every week.

MASSON Dental Co. Ltd.

Dental Scientists
Teeth extracted without pain
— Novo-Codlne

152 PEEL STREET

Uptown 5602

860 ST. DENIS STREET

St. Louis 4613

OPEN EVENINGS

J ^ 5 ^SZ5HSZ5BSZErESZSiS5E£rHSH5H5H5aS?

WHEN YOU ASK FOR SOME-
THING WHICH IS ADMITTEDLY
HIGH-CLASS AND YOU ARE
OFFERED SOMETHING “JUST
AS GOOD” — YOU DON’T BE-
LIEVE IT— FEW DO— AND WE
DON’T. OUR SPECIALISTS PRE-
PARE CREATIONS IN ICE
CREAM WHICH ARE WITHOUT
EQUALS. IF YOU HAVE TRIED
THEM YOU WILL UNDER-
STAND. IF YOU HAVEN’T YOU
CAN ASK AT THE FOUNTAIN
TO-NIGHT OR TAKE A PINT
PACKAGE OF “CITY DAIRY
ORANGE” HOME. A

AGENCIES
ALL OVER

5HSa5aSS£ra5HSHSH5H5H5H5aSH5Z5HSH5

JAMES GIBSON.

.FIVE ROSES

FLOUR <Cb reads

Cakes-Puddings-Pastries

Y OUR puddings are palatable,
why use Five Roses? Simply
because you want them more
daintily porous, more digestible.
Five Roses puddings digest un-
consciously — every spoonful is a
tasty source of vitality.

James Gibson

April 30, 1921

the CANADIAN RAILROADER

Application of the Golden
Rule in Business

GOOD THINGS ARE MADE TO BE EATEN

Montreal Dairy Company Limited

BUTTER SWEET CREAM ICE CREAM

-A

( From the Labor Review, U. S. Depart-
merit of Labor).

A STRICT and literal application
of the Golden Rule in the re-
lations between employer and
workers has been found in a large
wholesale tailoring establishment in*
the Middle West, that of Mr. Nash
of Cincinnati. So closely is this old
principle, laid down 1900 years ago,
followed in this plant that, accord-
ing to a communication to the Bu-
reau from the management, while
strikes and lowered production and
high prices characterized industry
in 1919 and the first half of 1920,
this company experienced no strikes,
increased its production over 1,000
per cent., and manufactured to order
suits and overcoats to retail at from
$16.50 to $29.

Later, when the clothing industry
became somewhat depressed, orders
‘ cancelled, factories closed, and
price-cutting was practiced, this
company during the first half of
1920 did $81,000 worth more busi-
ness than it did in 1919, and during
the month of June, 1920, did a busi-
ness equal to the entire year 1918.

In July and August, considered a
dull season for the wholesale tailor-
ing business, the business of this
company was only $12,000 less than
their biggest month's business not-
withstanding the fact that the en-
j^re factory force was given a week's
vacation.

This result the management
ascribes to the literal application of
the Golden Rule, which “is really
functioning and not being camou-
flaged," and has led to a condition
where “our employees have at all
times outdone the management in
its application."

The Divine Law.

The Golden Rule is the divine law
governing human relationships, ac-
cepted by all religions and proclaim-
ed by all prophets and teachers of
every creed. It is the only infal-
lible, workable, industrial and eco-
nomic law in the universe to-day.

I do not say it has solved all labor
troubles in our factory; nay, it has
done more, it has eliminated all labor
troubles during the most trying in-
dustrial period of the world's his-
tory. I do not say it has driven out
hatred, strife and selfishness; it has
done more, it has ushered in love,
contentment, co-operation, and hap-
piness; it has not only cast out hell,
but has brought heaven to us.

In July, 1919, the company moved
into larger quarters while a strike
was in progress in the industry, and
at once increased its working force
600 per cent, and its production over
3,000 per cent., the additional work-
ers being brought in by the em-
ployees themselves who told their
friends of the desirable working con-
ditions and wages existing as a re-
sult of the Golden Rule plan.

Following this increase a profit-
sharing scheme was. proposed by the
management but the employees re-
fused to accept it, stating that they
were willing to leave to the manage-
ment the matter of figuring out
what they could pay as a weekly
wage.

Increasing Prosperity.

Several wage increases were made
in 1919, none of which was made
as the result of demands or in con-
cert with the market, but each was
based on the increase in production.

At the end of 1919, in spite of the
wage advances, the company found
itself with a net profit of $42,000,
on an investment of $60,000.

“The actual condition at that
time," states the management, “was
that we were paying bigger wages,
selling our product for less money,
and making a greater profit than
any of our associates in business."
The workers were told of the large
profits.

“We felt greatly chagrined, be-
cause it is our belief that this is an
unjustifiable profit to make off of
the labor of others; we frankly told
our help so."

To absorb this large sum another
increase in wages ranging from 10
to 20 per cent, was put into effect.

Under changed conditions, with a
greatly increased force, it was found
to be almost impossible to figure
what each worker was producing and
so the profit-sharing basis of arriv-
ing at a just wage scale was again
proposed to the workers and un-
animously accepted.

Golden Rule by Employees.

Under this profit-sharing plan
profits were to be divided twice each
year upon the basis of earnings.
Quite to the surprise of the presi-
dent of the company, under stimula-
tion of the Golden Rule the em-
ployees a few days after the adop-
tion of the plan laid upon his desk
the following petition signed by men
and women earning more than $60 a
week:

“Realizing that the company is us-
ing every effort to be truly just and
democratic, and realizing that in
making the final adjustment of
wages on the profit-sharing basis a
very large share of this final pay-
ment, as at present intended, would
go to those making big wages, and
heartily agreeing with the manage-
ment that it is not just that the
lion’s share of the profits should go
to any individual, or small group of
individuals, we, the undersigned, all
of whom are drawing a weekly wage
of over sixty dollars ($60), do here-
by petition the management of the
company to distribute the workers'
share of profits, which is to be dis-
tributed July 1, 1920, on the basis
of time worked instead of on the
basis of wages drawn.

“This will give those making the
smaller wage an equal dividend with
those making the larger one, and
we believe is not only needed by
them, but is just and in keeping with
the policy of our company. We are
sure this will be appreciated by all
the help."

This petition meant, comments the
president of the company, that the
highly paid help, who under the plan
as adopted would have received six
or seven times as much as the old
employees or the beginners, a result
which they felt was not fair under
the Golden Rule principle, had volun-
tarily asked that all should receive
the same dividend — a dividend based
on time worked rather than on earn-
ings. When the first dividend was
distributed every employee received
a little over $3.50 for each week's
work.

Honesty in Business.

As to the increased volume of
business during the period of stag-
nation and price cutting, the presi-
dent of the company makes the fol-
lowing comment:

“When we decided to make the
Golden Rule our governing law it

was impressed upon every mind that
doing to others as we would be done
by did not simply mean employer
and employee, but mean each cus-
tomer on our books as well; it meant
that every garment we sold must
be of a standard that we would be
willing to accept, and sold at a price
that we would be willing to pay if
we were in the customer's place;
it meant that our help saw behind
each other a fellow human being
whom they wanted to deal with as
they would want to be dealt with.

“It was an honest effort at apply-
ing the Golden Rule that fixed our
prices during the 1919 orgy of high
prices and profiteering.

“The long-suffering public was
conscious of these facts and while
others were losing the confidence of
the public we were gaining their
confidence, so that when the time
came that the public went on a non-
buying strike we were no more af-
fected by that strike than we were
when the laborers went on a strike,
because in applying the Golden Rule,
dealing justly with the public, we
had won their confidence in the
same way we had won the confi-
dence of our employees.”

PAY-DAY SAVING

You are paid regularly.

Save regularly. When
pay-day comes, put some of
the money in a Savings Ac-
count in The Merchants Bank.

One dollar — five dollars — ten dollars
—whatever you can conveniently afford.

And put in the same amount every pay-
day. $1. opens a Savings Account — de-
posits of $1. and upwards are wej corned.

THE MERCHANTS BANK

OF CANADA

Head Office: Montreal. Established 1864.

399 Branches and Agencies in Canada, extending
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

7

Cl )t Canadian Batlroabcr

WEEKLY

The Official Organ of

The Fifth Sunday Meeting Association of Canada

ORGANIZED SEPTEMBER 1916

Incorporated under Dominion Letter* Patent.

April, 1919.

J. A. WOODWARD. President - C.P.R. Conductor

J. N. POTVIN, Vice-President - C.P.R. Train Dispatcher

W. F. BERRY, Sec.-Treasurer G.T.R. Conductor

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE S. DALE, C.P.R. Engineer; D. TRINDALL.
G.T.R. Locomotive Engineer; J HOGAN, C.P.R. Asst. Roadmaster; ARCHIE DU-
FAULT, C*P.R. Conductor; E. McGILLY, C.P.R. Locomotive Fireman W. T.
DAVIS, General Yard Master; W. FARLEY, C.P.R. Locomotive Engineer; M.
JAMES C.P.R. Engineer; S. PUGH, G.T.R. Conductor; Wm. PARSONS, C.G.R.
Agent

The Canadian Railroader was founded by railroaders, is
largely supported by railroaders, and is issued in the interest
of railroaders and all other workers by hand or brain.

Yearly subscription: $3.00; Single Copies: 10 cents

Published weekly by

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER LIMITED

316 LAGAUCHETIERE ST. W., Corner Beaver Hall Hill, MONTREAL
Telephone : MAIN 6222

GEORGE PIERCE, Editor KENNEDY CRONE, Managing Editor

A Mad World

Ul-vEAR God, how incredible it is that there should be found
'M J any class of Britons so dead to human consideration, so
steeped in narrow, unintelligent, inhuman selfishness, as
to be willing to victimize forty millions of their fellow beings,
bring them to want and tribulations, imperil the whole future
of their country and their own prosperity for a stubborn idea
involving at best a few shillings a week in actual material gain,
to grasp for themselves an illusive, untried advantage — and an
advantage probably to be made worthless through their own
mad greed, their own inscrutable logic? What can be think of
men so dastardly, so incredibly cruel?”

Thus the Los| Angeles Times in a recent editorial on the
British coal strike. There was a column and a quarter of the
same wild declamation and worked-up emotion.

I do not propose at this time to devote much energy to an
examination of the inscrutable logic of the Los Angeles Times
further than to remark in passing that I rather fear the heroic
efforts of this veracious newspaper to rouse public indignation
over the mad greed of men out for a few shillings a week is
doomed to failure in view of the large measure of more imposing
knavery than meantime stalks unrepentant through the world
— in other words the doings of the class whose interests the
Los Angeles Times is out to protect. In the whole editorial the
term “mine owners” does not appear once, but the old, old trick
is played of trying to make the issue one between the miners
and the nation.

The case, however, really does become somewhat inscrutable
when, on examining the facts soberly, we find that what the
miners are demanding, aside from their mad greed for a few
shillings, is nationalization of the mines. So that we are con-
fronted with a truly Gilbertian situation in which the miners
say to the nation : “These minerals are yours — they belong to the
nation. Why don’t you take them and have them worked for
the benefit of all?” To which the nation is to be understood
as replying: “You jolly well leave these minerals in the possession
of a handful of Dukes and other persons who ‘own’ them. Don’t
bother me with questions about how they got them. They have
them, and there is nothing better in sight than to leave them in
their possession. Hasn’t the good David Lloyd George made that
plain to all ofr-us? You get down and dig and be thankful.” A
mad world, my masters — growing madder all the time.

An interesting sidelight on the psychology of editorial writers
is to be observed in the call of the Los Angeles Times on a higher

power. This indicates great mental stress. The same phenome-
non is noticeable occasionally in the columns of the Montreal
Gazette which resorts, when the times become critical, to a loud
and incoherent piety that is no doubt very effective with the
rank and file and must be calculated to make the average news-
paper reader glow all over and exclaim: “Fine fellows! See how
true feeling and sentiment come gushing from their very souls
at the doings of these wretches of the labor world!”

How many men “own” the coal mines of Britain? Is it one
hundred or five hundred or five thousand? I do not find any
enlightenment on this point in any of our large dailies — only
an inscrutable silence. The Los Angeles Times says that there
are “perhaps five million” strikers and their dependants. So that
the issue is really between five millions and — a handful. It is
all very strange and very sad, too, 'to see poor Demos, egged on
by the astute little coteries so effectively concealed in the smoke
screens of our privately-owned newspapers, taking off his coat
to fight the very men who are asking that he should take charge
of, his own property and be master in his own house. A mad
world, my masters — getting madder every day.

— George Daniels.

A RE we going to have hard times? Some prophets
say we are. Not long ago the prophets told us we
were going to have a better world after the war.
It is not a better world, but it might have been. The
prophets saw what could have transpired if the people
had wanted it. And the same is true of their vision of
bad times — we can have them if we want them; we are
not compelled to have economic distress unless we want it.

The Movie Menace

UTF THE industry (motion pictures) is to endure, if decent
X peoples are to stay in the business, this cancer (the vicious
picture) must be cut out. A federal regulatory commission
should prove a fearless surgeon, and we therefore favor such a
commission.”

This statement was made recently — according to the Twen-
tieth Century Quarterly of Washington, D.C. — by the attorneys "
of several movie picture organizations, including the Paramount
Pictures Corporation, the Famous Players Film Company, the .ij
Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, the World Film Corpora-
tion and the Equitable Motion Pictures Corporation. The opinions
of -such corporations and also of prominent people were taken on
the problem of how the motion picture is to be saved “from the
sex undertow.” Practically all those in the business put the onus
on the public. Thus the president of the Universal Film Manu-
facturing Company, declares that he published a straight-from-
the-shoulder talk asking the exhibitors of America whether they
preferred wholesome pictures, or “smutty” ones. “Instead of
finding that 95 per cent, favored clean pictures,” he says, “I dis-
covered that at least half, and maybe sixty per cent., want the
pictures to be ‘risque,’ which is a French way or saying ‘smutty.’

The Universal does not pose as a guardian of public morals _
public taste. For that reason it is quite possible that we may. put
out a picture that is off-color now and then as a feeler. We have
no such picture yet, but it is easy to make them.”

It is evident then that the manufacturers are ready to meet
the demands of the public whatever may be wanted, and the
question then arises, who shall step in and prevent this de- c

moralization of a great entertainment industry ? Moving picture
censor boards seem to have proved a failure, their tendency being
to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, to rule out a slight
reflection upon a church or a constituted authority, but to allow
an objectionable bedroom scene to go through. This sex lure is
becoming more subtle in its appeal, states another president of
a film company. “Children everywhere are receiving more educa-
tion in feminine anatomy, and in other phases of manners and
morals, than adult humans formerly received in a lifetime.”

The Hon. Mrs. Ralph Smith, of Vancouver, the first woman
member of a Canadian cabinet, when speaking in Montreal re-
cently before the Canadian Club, scored the movies as being
associated with the production of vice and crime in children and
older people. “If the movies do not improve, do not go to them”
was her advice; but unfortunately a very large proportion of
movie show patrons are the young and irresponsible folk who are
not actuated by anything but their own impulses and tasted.
What is to be done with them? Practically every social reform
body which ever holds an annual meeting is saying something

April 30, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

must be done to stop the connection between movies and juvenile
crime; yet they all stop at action. Is is not possible to give
corporate expression to this sentiment? Would it not be pos-
sible for some of these bodies to attend a moving picture show,
take their notes and prosecute, or, more effectively, create a dis-
turbance in the show ? In this matter it is now time to act rather
than to talk.

— Caedmon.

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER is a carrier and
interpreter of the news and views of
the common people.

P. R. and British Constitution

* (From the Ottawa Citizen.)

A MONG the criticisms that are now being advanced in Canada
against Proportional Representation is one that originates
in Toronto, to the effect that P. R. is opposed to the prin-
ciples of British democracy and, further, that it is a direct attack
upon the British constitution.

Such an argument was advanced by the Duke of Wellington'
in 1820, while he was prime minister, against the abolition of the
- “rotten boroughs” in Great Britain. “But how,” he cried, “can
the King’s government be carried on?”

But the rotten boroughs were abolished and the King’s gov-
"erament survived the operation.

Such an argument was advanced by Gladstone, Shaftesbury
and Russel in 1866 against the proposal to abolish open voting.

But in 1872 open voting was abolished, and the benefit of
such a course is no longer open to question.

If it should be true that the attempt to secure the fair repre-
/ sentation of political parties in parliarpent is an attack on the
constitution, then gentlemen in Toronto show far more solicitude
for the safety of the Empire than has been evinced by the House
of Lords, which has most consistently supported P. R. ever since
it was first seriously considered in connection with the Home
Rule bill of 1914.

The first vote on the’question of P. R. for British parliamen-
tary elections, which was proposed in the Representation of the
People bill, was taken in the House of Commons on June 12, 1917,
and was defeated by only 148 votes to 141.

The bill without the P. R. clauses then passed to the House
of Lords, where on January 22, 1918, an amendment restoring
P. R. was carried by 131 votes to 42.

The P. R. clauses were ultimately rejected but, up to the
last the Lords voted overwhelmingly in favor of their retention,
and in fact did succeed in having P. R. applied to the university
constituencies at the general election of 1918.

It was the House of Lords that originated the Municipal
Representation P. R. bill, (1914) ; and both Houses of Parliament
passed the bill applying P. R. to the Irish municipal and county
council elections, and to the school board elections in Scotland.

It was a member of the House ofiiords, the Earl of Selborne,
who, in a letter to the “Times,” February 19, 1919, pointed out
the danger to the constitution that lurks in the present electoral
system. He wrote in part as follows :

“At the last general election the Labor party polled in con-
tested seats in Great Britain 2,292,102 votes. This poll entitled
them to 120 seats in respect of the contested constituencies alone,
but the total number of seats they obtained in contested and un-
. contested constituencies was 59. The result is that the Labor
party know that they are not fairly represented in the House of
Commons, and many of their leaders, whose presence they con-
sider essential to the proper consideration of their business, have
failed to obtain seats in the House. The consequence is that they
look less and less to the House of Con^mons as the place where
the questions which interest them can be properly -considered
and dealt with, and that there is an ever-increasing tendency to
deal with these questions outside of parliament. This fact is
fraught with danger.”

Shortly after these words were written the extreme radical
wing of the British Labor party, the Direct Actionists they are
called, in despair at the failure of constitutional methods, suc-
ceeded in creating the Council of Action, which has been described
by Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., president of the British Trades Union
Congress, as “a challenge to the British constitution.”

Mr. J. R. Clynes, M.P., a moderate Labor leader, has warned
the government of the waning confidence of Labor in parliamen-
tary institutions, and has suggested the antidote. "‘It is clear,”

‘that propqrtional representation would n ..

he states, "that propqrt

crease confidence in representative institutions ; and as tn! |
fidence is being shaken by election results on existing lines,
is in the national interest that proportional representation should
meet with greater support.”

The advice of such men as Mr. Clynes, however, has not yet
been taken.

The P. R. bill was recently defeated on its third reading in
the House of Commons; and it is significant that that item of
news was figured on the same front pages that bore the informa-
tion that the coal strike in Great Britain was likely at any mo-
ment to develop into a complete tie-up of all industry.

P. R. is still often slightingly referred to as a freak experi-
ment. But if once the nation loses confidence in the House of
Commons as a true reflection of the opinion of the people, then
we are involuntarily launched on a sea of experiment more radical
than P. R., the issue of which no one yet sees.

“I believe,” Lord Selborne has stated, “that proportional rep-
resentation is going to become one of the sheet anchors of the
constitution, one of our greatest safeguards for the continuance
of a democratic government under a parliamentary system.”

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THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

What British Miners Want

■ ■

“Nationalization of Mines” by Frank
Hodges . New York: Thomas
Seltzer , Inc.

O NE who wishes nowadays to
find statesmanship in the
discussion of industrial prob-
lems is compelled to resort to the
writings of the spokesmen of labor.
It is here that the problems are
treated in their more general rela-
tions.

How much of a commodity the
nation as a whole needs and at what
price it can be supplied and paid
for; how the wastes in production
can be done away with and the ex-
cessive charges of distribution re-
duced; how the incentive to do his
best can be restored to the worker:
these are among the subjects vital
to the public interests that the labor
authorities are treating.

Sporadically similar subjects are
handled well by persons not connect-
ed with the labor movement, as for
example by Mr. Hoover and the en-
gineering societies. But as a rule
the spokesmen of capital are confin-
ing themselves to the threshing of
old straw — the sanctity and adequacy
of private initiative and the dangers
of paternalism, the beneficence of
the tendencies towards equilibrium
in economic life, etc.

Just compare the difference in
quality between the arguments ad-
vanced by the Amalgamated Cloth-
ing Workers and those of their op-
ponents. The former are those of
men living in our time, intensely
aware of contemporary circum-
stances. The latter are the voice of
a neglected tomb.

Secretary of the Federation.

In the list of works in the excel-
lent tradition of the labor school one
of the best is this book by Frank
Hodges, secretary of the Miners'
Federation. It is brief, straightfor-
ward and all to the point.

It would deserve wide study even
if nothing had happened to give it
the quality of timeliness. With the
coal strike on, the book is invaluable.

Nothing else available to the gen-
eral reader gives so clear a view of
what the miners are fighting for.

The book gives a sketch of the
conditions under which coal is pro-
duced and consumed, brief, but ade-
quate to the purpose of showing that
the present system is intolerably
wasteful and anti-social.

It is something of a novelty in
practical literature that the spokes-
man for a group whose interest lies
in the increase in the demand for
coal should stand staunchly for econ-
omy in the consumption of coal. But
Mr. Hodges views the coal industry
as a public service. The public re-
quires a certain quantity of heat
and power.

To meet this requirement over a
million men must toil underground
or at the pit's mouth, incurring risks
to life and limb that are among the
gravest in modern industry.

The coal put on the market is af-
ter all the material embodiment of

the miners’ labor and deprivation
and not a little of their blood.

Coal is Wasted.

Should it be wasted in antiquated
heating and power plants? Mr.
Hodges feels that this waste is more
criminal than a mere waste of money
that burdens the consumer with un-
necessary costs.

If it could be assumed that the in-
dustry, with all tis present waste-
fulness, were steadily improving, it
might be the part of wisdom to let
it alone. But the industry is plainly
deteriorating.

“There has been a general decline
in technique, a decline in the physical
means for production, a decline in
machinery, in rolling stock, and in
the character of the underground
workings.”

The only factors which do not ex-
hibit deterioration are profits and
money wages.

Profits have been rising with ir-
regular persistence, from $58,500,-
000 in 1889-93 to $177,500,000 in
1918, or from 33 cents per ton in
1889-93 to 79 cents in 1918.

Wages have risen from an average
of $290 a year to $795 a year.

Increased earnings for both labor
and capital, combined with reduction
in output per unit of labor and of
capital, suggest what is happening
to the consumer.

And since the chief consumer is
the industry and trade by which all
England lives it is time something
should be done about the matter.

The Proposed Solution.

The solution proposed by Mr.
Hodges is nationalization, the taking
over of the mines with fair com-
pensation to the owners and their
operation as a unified system of
public service, a sort of trust with
the nation as the sole stockholder.

The industry would not be run
bureaucratically, like the Post Of-
fice, but by a mining council, half
elected by the miners and half in
open Parliament, to represent the
interests of the other industries and
of domestic consumers.

This council would work through
a Minister of Mines to secure con-
centration of responsibility and a
co-ordination of mining with the
general national interest.

The chief benefits from such a
reorganization of industry would be.
two-fold.

In the first place the waste and
inconvenience of the present hap-
hazard scheme would sooner or later
be done away with.

Mines could be laid out and equip-
ped in pursuance of a far-sighted
plan of national development.

The handling of the whole coal
supply as a unit would inevitably
force the concentration of organiz-
ing ability upon economy in the
generation of power, upon the utili-
zation of by-products.

In the second place and most im-
portant of all this reorganization
would give the mine laborer the
sense of dignity and responsibility

essential to his best performance.

As matters stand he is invited to
produce his maximum: thereby he
will increase profits in the first in-
stance; later, perhaps, wages will
rise, or coal prices to the consumer
will fall, perhaps.

Under the nationalization plan of
Mr. Hodges, no potential profiteer
would stand between the miner and
the consumer, to put a moral brake
upon every impulse toward increased
effort. — Alvin Johnson, in the New
Republic.

Canadian Woolens and Consoli-
dated Smelting are two of the latest
concerns to “pass’ their common divi-
dends.

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April 30, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

W irk and Wages for the
Unemployed

By Royal Meeker , United States Commis-
sioner of Labor States).

U NEMPLOYMENT is the only
purely industrial hazard. It
is far and away the most dis-
astrously costly of all hazards. It is
the one about which we know least,
and in regard to which we have
done almost nothing. The people of
the United States have given almost
no attention to the business of di-
recting workmen to employment.

We have done nothing at all to
furnish employment to the unem-
ployed in dull times on public works,
highways, harbor improvements,
public buildings, and other construc-
tion work for the community. Yet
such work has to be done, and it is
perfectly practicable to arrange to
have these works constructed dur-
ing dull seasons and in times of de-
pression, so as to relieve the stress
cr^yS-slack work and unemployment in
such periods. The policy of push-
ing public construction work during
the dull season and in times of de-
pression is no new proposition. The
experiment has been tried abroad
and has worked successfully.

In this country, however, when
unemployed workmen have clamor-
ed for work, we have pointed out to
them our stupendous resources, our
marvellous economic genius, the ma-
jestic magnitude of our industries,
and the tremendous velocity of our
progress, and we have said, “No man
who really wants work need be
idle.” Long sophomoric essays have
been written to prove that the only
idle people in our unprecedentedly
prosperous country are those who
will not work. How otherwise could
be explained the numbers of idle
men and women in the midst of
our plenteous prosperity?

In recent years we have begun
to distrust this simple explanation
of unemployment. The laboring men
and women of the country are insist-
ing loudly upon their right to work
and earn food, raiment, and shelter
for their bodies, as a substitute for
the privilege of receiving these in-
dispensable goods as uncertain doles
bestowed by the hands of profes-
sional philanthropists 'in the name
of organized charity. Who can
blame the workers for preferring
wages above alms?

Bread and Circuses.

Our legislatures have been very
slow to recognize the existence of
unemployment in our country. When
they have recognized it, they have
made no- attempt to measure its
magnitude or deal with it intel-
ligently or effectively.

Our efforts to deal with unem-
ployment are still mainly confined
to handing out bread and soup in-
discriminately to all comers. The
Romans dispensed bread and cir-
cuses to their unemployed. We have
substituted soup for circuses. That
has been thus far our contribution

toward the ultimate solution of the
problem of unemployment.

Whether we have improved upon
the Roman formula for the treat-
ment of the unemployed may be de-
termined only by a careful statis-
tical study of the relative merits
of the Roman circus and of the Am-
erican soup dispensed to the unem-
ployed.

Some of the States and the Fed-
eral Government have set up sys-
tems of employment offices to bring
together the “jobless man” and the
“manless job.” It has often been
asserted that these offices can not
create work for the unemployed.
Their work, however, has exactly
the same effect if they bring an un-
employed man into a job that would
have remained unoccupied without
their efforts.

A public employment office, even
a very inefficient one, is a recog-
nition on the part of the public of
a solemn, tragic fact and of a great
fundamental principles — the fact of
unemployment and the principle of
public responsibility therefor. These
public offices should be vigorously
supported by the people until they
have driven all competing, profiteer-
ing private employment offices out
of existence.

Opportunity of Work.

The unemployed who want work
should be given the opportunity to
do productive work through employ-
ment offices; the unemployed who
want to live and loaf at the expense
of the industrious should be made to
work on farm colonies and in penal
institutions. The trouble with our
public employment offices is the
trouble which afflicts many if not
most of our institutions. We have
recognized the principle and default-
ed in the interest. Our people are
not willing to give of their time and
effort to bring and keep the offices
up to a high standard of efficiency.

The United States has no here-
ditary governing classes; the busi-
ness of government falls upon the
masses. Class government, of the
classes, by the classes, and for the
classes is relatively simple and easy
to effect. There is nothing more
difficult than to bring to pass mass
government, of the people, by the
people, and for the people. The Am-
erican people are an ingenious and
an ingenuous people. We have done
more to substitute automatic mach-
inery and devices for men and brains
than any other people on earth.

Whenever we see a man working
at a steady job we want to devise
a machine to take his place. We
yearn for perpetual motion, social,
political, economic, religious, spirit-
ual, and physical. We want devices
which, when once set going, will go
on forever, requiring no further at-
tention or intelligent effort on our
part. We elect legislatures which
enact statutes making it unlawful to

do wrong, and we go on our way
rejoicing. When the wrongdoers
continue to do wrong, we set up a
board or commission to put a stop
to the wrongdoing. When the board
or commission fails to work, we set
up another automatic device to make
it work, and so on.

Solving the Problem.

But even if we had a complete and
smoothly working national system
of employment offices we would not
have solved the problem of unem-
ployment. Periodical, seasonal, and
even weekly and diurnal irregulari-
ties in employment would exist. It
is immensely more important that
we smooth out the irregularities in
employment than that we establish
employment offices. Prevention is
worth a thousand tons of cure.

At first blush it might seem that
every industry should be self-sup-
porting, that is, every industry
should pay at least a living annual

Twtphoni: Victoria 500

wage — a wage suffici
a worker and his family thr
out the year, even though the ir
try should run for only a few months
in the year. This idea sounds at-
tractive but it is impracticable.

If we try to put it into effect the
canning industries would be destroy-
ed along with many other useful in-
dustries which operate for only a
part of the year. It is, however, per-
fectly practicable to combine sea-
sonal industries and industries hav-
ing considerable irregularity in em-
ployment so as to make employment
much more stable than at present.
But even when employment is stabil-
ized as far as possible, there will
still exist recurrent unemployment.

Better conditions in the dry goods,
women's wear and shoe industries,
comprising manufacturers, jobbers,
wholesalers and retailers, are re-
ported from all over Canada.

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THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

{By Kennedy Crone).

“RUMMAGE SALES.”

C HURCH and other organiza-
tions frequently hold what
are called “rummage sales”;
that is, sales of discarded clothing
and other things gifted by those
who would rather dispose of them
that way than throw them in the
garbage pail or sell them for a ten-
cent-piece or two to a second-hand
dealer.

Now, to some persons a “rummage
sale” is an occasion for smart jokes
about the rubbish sent in to be sold
and the human rubbish who come to
buy the rubbish at a bargain. If I
could not make better jokes, I think
I would go into the undertaking
business or some other lively occupa-
tion to tickle up my sense of humor.

There is little joke about a “rum-
mage sale,” but or she who seeks
will find something just as good.
For one thing, it seems to me it
is a kindly, useful sentiment that
prompts people to present their cast-
offs to such a sale. It is good
community spirit, a stirring of social
consciousness. Articles which are
no longer suitable in some homes
may jbe blessings in other homes;
at least they may permit valuable
economy in other homes. A woman’s
suit the worse for wear may still
make an excellent dress for a little
girl; an old overcoat may still help
to make a warm blanket; there may
be enough of a useless carpet to
make a finq rug for somebody; baby
things no longer needed in one place
are still needed by other babies in
other places; indeed, many things
which have served their day some-
where are still good for another day
somewhere else.

Old second-hand things are often
of much better material and work-
manship than the new things that
some purses can stretch to buy. Occ-
asionally men and women have a
conceit that interferes with their us-
ing of second-hand things. They
have a notion that there is some-
thing humiliating about it, and no
doubt it could be made to appear
humiliating. But it is really a false
conceit, the humiliation is largely
"imaginary, and there is no need to
go amongst those few extraordinary
persons who seem fo get some pious
pleasure out of the humiliation ^>f
their fellow-creatures. Instead of
decrying the use of second-hand ma-
terial, I have come to think that the
waste of second-hand material that
goes on is shameful. I know a Baby
Welfare nurse who has great trou-
ble getting necessary clothing for
babies coming under her attention,
and I also know that many things
that the babies need are being moth-
eaten in cupboards or sold as rags
for making paper, right in the dis-
trict where these babies are.

Then as to the human rubbish who
buy the rubbish at “rummage sales.”
There are “mouchers,” of course, and

LINES

there are thieves, taking advantage
of the good intent. (At that, I am
not sure that I would care to be
zealous about catching a woman
thief at a “rummage sale” stealing
clothing for her children.) But the
greatest crime of many of the visi-
tors to “rummage sales*’ is that they
are poor, a dreadful crime, to be sure,
in some eyes, eyes badly in need of
an oculist’s skill. Many other visi-
tors are quite ordinary “working
class” or “middle class” types, try-
ing to save a few dollars, not be-
cause they must have them at the
moment, but because they are
steady, thrifty, forward-looking per-
sons, which is to their credit.

A “rummage sale” to my mind, is
a reflection of thoughtfulness and
sound common-sense on the part of
givers, sellers and buyers. I know
some people who don’t give to them
and would feel happier if they did.
I also know some persons who don’t
buy at them and would feel happier
if they did. The jokes and jibes
about “rummage sales” are utterly
beyond my understanding.

DUKE’S PLAN GONE ASTRAY.

I N the Railroader of April 16, writ-
ing of the miners’ strike, I made
reference to the Dukes of Ham-
ilton who lived in splendor in a pal-
ace in a beautiful estate, largely
maintained by the royalties from
coal dug from beneath the ancestral
acres by men who lived in hovels in
which the Dukes would not have kept
their dogs. I spoke of the old story
of the magnificent mausoleum which
the tenth Duke of Hamilton had
built on the estate to contain the
bodies of his ducal predecessors,
with a provision for adding his own
body to the collection when he died,
and his conceit about the sensation
there would be when ten Dukes of
Hamilton rose together on the
Resurrection Morn.

The Scottish corespondent of the
Gazette, in the issue of April 23,
adds an interesting piece of up-to-
date news in the connection. He
says:

“It would be easy to preach a hom-
ily on the vanity of human designs,
taking as a text the application
made this week to the Sheriff of
Lanark for leave to transfer from
the ducal mausoleum at Hamilton
the bodies of some sixteen members
of the family. The mausoleum/ was
erected about lixty years ago by the
•tenth Duke, who consoled himself
with reflections on the imposing
spectacle that would be presented by
ten Dukes of Hamilton rising to-
gether on the day of Resurrection.
Some members of the family have
been lying there for nearly 450
years, but their resting place is
threatened by the subsidences due
to the working of the minerals fur-
ther underground. With the excep-
tion of Duke William, who is to be
buried in the Hamilton estates at

Arran, the bodies are to be trans-
ferred to a local cemetery.”

The correspondent also says that
the palace is now in process of being
-torn down, also on account of mining
subsidences.

A SURPRISING THING.

A SENSE of obligation not to
discourage the young folks
often takes me to school con-
certs and other amateur exhibitions
which I would probably ignore if
their intrinsic merit as entertain-
ment were the only attraction. If I
could conveniently go to sleep at
some of them without annoying any-
one, perhaps I would do so. Like a
good hypofcrite, I applaud the per-
formers because I would not like
the youngsters to think that any
part of the audience was dense
enough or mean enough to be un-
appreciative. Should you happen to
feel shocked at the hypocrite, please
also remember the hypocrites who
pretend to enjoy uninteresting pro-
grammes purveyed by adults, clap-
ping* noisily while they whisper to
one another about the spoilt even-
ing, and moving, seconding and
carrying votes of thankless thanks.

But if there are lots of disturbing
amateur entertainments, where little
Cecil with his little fiddle wrecks a
Beethoven sonata, and little Mary
ties herself in knots in a Grecian
dance, and little Bill with frozen
face recites the “Charge of the Light
Brigade,” and little Tessie blithely
murders “The Last Rose of Sum-
mer” — bless all their hearts just
the same! — there are also occasional
joyful surprises.

There was a surprise at a concert
given by the pupils of the High
School for Girls on April 21, in the
assembly hall of the school. I had
bought a ticket under the usual pres-
sure, with the usual expectation of
being dreadfully bored, and the usual
determination to conceal the bore-
dom as politely as possible.

The concert was one of the best
of its kind I have ever heard, and I
have heard many, good, bad and
awful. It was in three parts. The
first part was given by a choir of
180 girls of between 10 and 14 years
of age, the second part by a choir of
220 girls of between 14 and 15 years
of age, and the third part by a choir
of 230 girls of between 15 and 19
years of age. The increasing skill in
singing as the ages mounted was
very noticeable, showing the stages
of cumulative training.

An old Scottish lullaby, “Hush-a-
ba-birdie, Croon” (Alice Bunting)
was the charm of part one. “To The
Evening Star” (Schumann and “Ash
piration” (Elgar) were the outstand-
ing features of the second part,
which also included a boys’ string
quartet presenting Boyce’s “Suite
from Twelve Sonatas.” The two-
part song, “Shed no Tear” (Bain-
ton), the three-part song, “Oh, Mem-
ory” (Leslie), and the two-part
song, “The Dance” (Elgar), were
the higher beauties of the massed
singing in part three. In part three

Miss Frances James gave the only
solo, “Like to the Damask Rose” (El-
gar), with sweet ingenue air and fine,
gifted voice, well trained. It is safe
to say that the beautiful effects of
hundreds of girlish voices carefully
blended in some of the most beauti-
ful music that composer ever put
pen to, sometimes carried the thou-
sand listeners out of themselves, so
to speak. The cold white-tiled walls
of the hall, the unsightly girders of
the roof, the prosaic steam pipes,
the unpainted circus seats that did
duty for a platform, the occasional
songster with too much prinking of
her hair and too much powder on her
face — even these poor accompani-
ments to fine music melted from the
vision and the mind rested in a
gandeur of human voices that built
dreams of fairied woods and
streams, of great emotions and in-”
spirations.

Mr. Arthur E. Egerton, F.R.C.O.,
presided at the piano with his nor-
mal excellence, and the High School
Orchestra accompanied four of the
features with good finish. The whole
concert was under the conductorship
of Mr. Duncan McKenzie, M.A., the
school music master, who put all the
soul of a Highland dreamer into his
work and pt the same time was quite
evidently an intensely practical
teacher of technique. The main
credit of the entertainment goes, of
course, to Mr. McKenzie. It was a
surprise to see 600 girls under abso-
lute control, not to speak of the sur-
prising musical merit developed
amongst them. So, even if putting
the ladies last “isn’t done, you
know,” I say: Here’s to the music
master and here’s to the girls!

ABOUT A HAIR-CUT.

A N Old Country person uses
about $40 worth of space in
the Gazette to tell us that a
hair-cut costs eight cents in the
land of his birth and that his first
hair-cut here cost him $1.40, includ-
ing the “extras.” He is not com-
plaining about the high rates, and,
indeed, there seems to be no object
in his writing at all. What annoys
me in the connection is that h
should use up so much space to tell
us something that is of no interest
to anybody as far as I can see. He
reminds me of the miser who used
up a dozen- penny candles in his
hunt for a lost farthing, or of a gov-
ernment department piling up a
square foot of expert correspondence
in quadruplicate in order to recover
a two-cent stamp. Personally, I
think that the next time he gets
a hair-cut in Canada, the barber
ought to charge him about $38 to
even things up a bit.

GET A MARY JANE.

T HERE are three kinds of
kitchen stoves — the kind
with a flaming passion for
coal, the kind that is darned if it
will warm up to coal, and the kind
that makes a middling, kiss-me-but-
don’t-get-fresh response to coal. I
know all three sorts and like the

April 30, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

last-named best. The others would
put any ordinary home into bank-
ruptcy or cold storage.

The less nickel-plating the better.
Much nickel-plating on a kitchen
stove is there to fool the sort of
female who, when buying something
special for the poor prune useful on
pay-days, grabs at the fancy box
with the near-silk ribbon. Nickel-
plating is no guide to temperament
or accomplishment. Stoves, like
women, are not to be judged by the
civilized barbarities plastered on
them. An orgy of nickel-plating is
reminiscent of a prinked and power-
ed Priscilla with an ingrown temper,
or of an ice cream parlor where the
^Neapolitan ice cream is made in a
Pekinese dump behind the plate-
glass mirrors.

When buying a stove, don’t buy
a Theda Bara. Get a plain Mary
Jane.

RAILWAY TROUBLES DUE TO

PROFITEERS.

Chicago.

War-time and post-war profiteer-
ing chiefly in coal and vSteel products
were held responsible for a large
part of the financial difficulties of
United States railroads in an exhibit
filed by the rail.way unions before
the United States Railroad Labor
Board by W. Jett Lauck, economist
for the unions.

“A conservative estimate,” he said,
“of what this profiteering cost the
railroads from 1916 to U>19 is $75,-
000,000 a year in coal bills, and
$200,000,000 for steel and iron pro-
ducts, including equipment and re-
pairs from locomotive and car com-
panies.”

Earnings of seventeen coal com-
panies set forth in the exhibit show-
ed that from an average percentage
earning of 7.9 in 1912, the percent-
age rose to 27.2 in 1917, declining
to 17.2 in 1918.

“During the pre-war years 1912-
1914, eighteen steel companies had
an average net income of $74,650,-
000. For the war years 1916-1918
the income of these same corpora-
tions averaged approximately $337,-
000,000 or almost exactly four and
one-half times the pre-war average.
These excess war-time profits of at
least $750,000,000 represent a bur-
den of about $30 upon every United
States family.

“The war profits of the seven rail-
road equipment concerns shown in
financial manuals were nearly two
and a half tiines as large as in pre-
war years.”

SAYS MINERS CAN OPERATE
THE MINES.

Glasgow.

Speaking at a National Guild con-
ference in Glasgow, held to promote
the idea of self-government in indus-
try, Robert Smillie expressed his
confidence that the miners could run
the mines successfully without the
coal-owners.

Replying to the statement that
the workers were unfit to govern, he

Among the recent interesting im
migrants who have been coming to
Canada from Europe there arrived
a party of Finlanders, in care of
Lieut. T. C. Wetton, F.R.G.S., F.R
C.I,. of the Devonshire Regiment,
Imperial Army, who had previously
served as our Allies in the “Finnish
Legion,” in North ‘Russia. These
Finlanders with many of their
compatriots had been driven out of
Finland into North Russia when the
Germans invaded their country. The
“Finnish Legion” was formed from
among these exiled Finns and rend-
ered good service to the British
force. The Legion was commanded
by Lieut.-Col. R. B. J. Burton, O.B.E.,
of Toronto, formerly of the 8th Can-
adian (Winnipeg) Regiment. After
the Armistice most of the Legionar-
ies were repatriated to Finland, but
some Legion Details, including sev-
eral refugee Finnish women and
children, were left in charge of
Lieut. Wetton who was one of the
last to leave North Russia at the
Allies Evacuation of that country.
His chief Finnish officer under him
was Oskari Tokoi, previously the
first Prime Minister of Finland after
the Russian Revolution. Later
Lieut. Wetton was sent to Helsing-
fors, Finland, where the repatriation
of the Legionaries was being car-
ried out. Having suggested strong-
ly to the British War Office that
the remaining Legionaries who were
not repatriated to Finland should
be given an opportunity to set-
tle in Canada, Lieut. Wetton was
placed in charge of these Finns on j

their arrival in England last spring.
Arrangements were eventually made
for the Finns to come to Canada to
work in the lumber camps, and
Lieut. Wetton brought them over
and took his party through to North
Temiskaming and got them satis-
factorily placed at work in the bush.
As he predicted, these Finns who
rendered good work to the British
in North Russia, and underwent sev-
eral months’ military training and
discipline out there and are accus-
tomed to work on the farm and in
the woods in their own country, are
now rapidly settling down well to
their new conditions, are giving
satisfaction in their work and give
promise ^of developing into good set-
tlers- Some of them are hoping
later on to take up farming work
Most of them are single men, strong
hardy types of vigorous manhood
inured to the extremes of climate
and accustomed to hard work. They
are a very good type of settier.
Some of them can speak very' good
English, others in addition to their
native tongue can converse in Rus-
sian and in Swedish, whilst one of
the men can speak fluently in Fin-
nish, English, Russian, Swedish.
Norwegian and is now learning
French.

Lieut. Wetton has had a varied
career, having served twice as a
volunteer in the South African War,
and later writing two books on his
campaign experiences. Afterwards
immigrating to Canada from the
“Old Country” he spent a few years
on the staff of the Manitoba Free
Press and as their special travelling
correspondent he contributed to that i

paper many articles dealing with
the development of the growing
western towns. He also undertook
some lecture and immigration pro-
paganda trips in the “Old Country.”
While in England on the last of
these trips at the outbreak of the
war, he immediately joined the “2nd.
King Edward’3 Horse”' (1st. Can-
adian Cavalry Brig*ade) as a troop-
er, and saw considerable active ser-
vice in France and Belgium. Twice
wounded and recommended for a
Commission, he was gazetted to the
Devonshire Regiment, and early in
xt ^ Joined. the “Finnish Legion” in
North Russia. Most of his time out
“? er ® .^ e was on outpost dutv with
his Finns, oftentimes alone with
them, and thereby learned their
language. There he met Miss Aini
Kauppinen of Rovaniemi, North Fin-
land, who had travelled hundreds of
miles alone to join her two brothers
in the Legion. On learning her his-
tory — she had been wounded and im-
prisoned in the cause of her country
—Lieut. Wetton saw that she was
well cared for. Friendship between
them grew apace and later matured
into love. After overcoming many*
obstacles, Lieut. Wetton subse-
quently succeeded in getting Miss
Kauppinen safely to England where
their thrilling romance was climaxed
by their marriage last June Mr.
Oskari Tokoi being the bridegroom's
best man,, whilst the Finnish Legion
aries formed a fitting “Guard of
Honor” at the church. After thei-
arrival in Canada Lieut. ’and Mrs.
Wetton stayed for a while in the
bush, officially connected with the
Finns.

declared that democracy was suffi-
ciently intelligent- and honest to
guide the affairs of state if it got
the chance.

Certainly it could not do worse
than the fellows who were in charge
at present.

If it were true that the industry

could not at present be carried on
without reducing wages or increas-
ing prices, it was because it had
not been carried on as it ought to
have been under private owner-
ship, and they would gladly take
the mines over and run the risk of
having to reduce wages.

If the mines were handed over to-
morrow to the mine workers, manual
and technical, they could carry them
on successfully supposing every
mine owner in Great Britain were
to go over to Timbuctoo and re-
main there.

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

FIRST AIR STATION MASTER.

Britain’s wonderful air port at
Croydon, near London, is likely to
.be such a busy place next spring that
_an ait stationmaster has been ap-
pointed. He is Major S. T. L. Greer,
a pilot with a wide experience of
military and civil flying.

His duty will be to give safe land-
ing orders to all incoming machines,
and thus avoid collisions on the
aerodrome. From his office, a large
control tower perched on foui; legs
high above the other buildings, he
will command a complete view of all
that happens on the landing ground.

By wireless he will be able to in-
struct an aerobus, on its way from
Lympne after crossing the Channel
from Paris, either to increase or
slacken speed so that it does not
interfere with the arrival from
Amsterdam; and “joy-riders” dally-
ing on the aerodrome must be bustl-

ed in order to insure clear landing
space.

At night the air terminus will look
like the entrance to some enchanted
land.

Lighthouse for Pilots.

From his office Major Greer will
direct incoming traffic with rockets
and Very lights. Far away over the
Surrey hills he will see a green light
rise high into the sky — a night
traveller on the airway seeking per-
mission to land at Croydon. The
answer will be flashed back by light
signals — green if it is safe for the
oncoming pilot to land, and white if
the Controller wishes him to keep
away for a time.

So, bit by bit, our international
air terminus is becoming one of the
most marvellous and fascinating
places in the world.

It is all so matter of fact, this
first air post in the world, also full
of wonders locked up in innocent

little houses beside the mighty hang-
ers, that it is only when you get be-
hind the scenes that you realize its
astounding features.

A lighthouse, to guide pilots,
lights up and goes out automatically,
its 72,000 candle-power beam visible
from the air for about thirty miles.
Three powerful searchlights help
with the night-flying operations.
Near by is a rocket apparatus for
signalling.

The old flares that used to indi-
cate to night pilots the direction of
the air currents (since a machine
always lands head to wind) have
been replaced by an ingenious land-
ing light in the shape of a huge
capital L.

It is let into the ground, the elec-
tric bulbs being covered with thick
glass safe for an aeroplane to land
upon. The upright arm of the L
faces the direction in which the wind
blows.

A REORGANIZATION OF
INDUSTRY.

(By the Leeds Correspondent to the
Manchester Guardian).

Leeds, England, has lately come
into some prominence through a
novel plan of dealing with unemploy-
ment that -has been thrown out by
the lord mayor. So far his scheme
is merely in the early stages of dis-
cussion, and one is skeptical as to
its fate.

But if it comes to nothing it will
have served one purpose — it has
brought employers’ and workpeople’s
representatives in Leeds together to
consider the conditions and causes of
unemployment in particular trades.

Unemployment is fairly acute in
Leeds, and three weeks ago the lord
mayor convened a representative
meeting at which he appealed for
co-operation, explained his ideas oi>
industrial maintenance, and secured
the setting up of joint committees
for each trade.

Seven of these met last Friday
and their interim reports will (in
most cases) be ready by the end of-,
the month.

The Unemployment Position.

Spirit of Co-operation.

This atmosphere will be produced,
he argues, by an extension of the
spirit of co-operation which lies be-
hind the Whitley Industrial Coun-
cils.

But their functions must be in-
creased and th£y must become the
machinery for a new organization of
industry.

Each industry, through its joint
committee, will fix the selling price
of its goods.

All processes of manufacture and
marketing are to be thoroughly cost-
ed, and the various percentages got
out that should be allowed for labor,
materials, distribution, executive,
running and overhead charges,
manufacturers’ profit, retailers’
margin of gross profit, and percent-
age of cost to have goods retailed.

The aim of these committees is to
discuss the unemployment position
in the industries and what can be
done to relieve it. They have also
before them as a possibl# construc-
tive programme the lord mayor’s
scheme.

Three years ago Halifax, “Can-
ada’s Nova Scotian Gateway,” was
dealt the most devastating blow suf-
fered by any city outside the war zone
when the “Imo” rammed the French
munition ship “Mont Blanc,” killed
2,000 people and wrecked an area of
two square miles. To-day Halifax
is a bigger, better and more beau-
tiful city than it was before the TNT
blast because its great housing
problem has been solved successfully
and because the new is even better
than the old. As a wounded war
veteran Halifax received a bonus of
about $20,000,000 from Canada,
Great Britain and the United States
for relief work and a commission
with full power to deal with the sub-
ject was appointed. Fully 5,000
people were comfortably housed in
temporary barracks resembling ft

war-time camp. 8.000 homes were re-
aired and 1,000 homes accommo-
ating 6,000 people have been built
by the commission which has prac-
tically finished its titanic task. In
one new group of 322 dwellings
built of hydro-stone, or concrete
blocks, there are 37 buildings con-
taining four dwellings each and the
remainder contain from two to six
families. Each row faces a park
and in the rear is a service lane.
Each building has all modern im-
provements and is exceedingly at-
tractive.

Halifax is the chief city of Nova
Scotia, the “Land of Evangeline,”
and has one of the finest as well as
one of the most beautiful harbors in
the world. Overlooking the city is
the old Citadel with its stone walls,
moats, dungeons and frowning can-

Jfe w Mv afro - S'lorvc UoiM&e

non. All manner of water sport3
are on its summer program and
there is strong rivalry between the
racing fishermen of Nova Scotia
and New England whose forebears
have followed the sea for genera-
tions. Not far from Halifax is the
Annapolis Valley, famous ^because
of its wonderful apple-blossom time
and because it was the home of the
Acadians, whose expulsion in 1755
furnished the theme of Longfellow’!
“Evangeline.”

One can only indicate the lines of
his proposals vaguely because they
are yet insufficiently worked out. ' — _

The lord mayor, Mr. Braithwaite,
is no doctrinaire economist. ^

He is a Conservative in politics,
and a successful business man with
large interests as a contractor,
quarry-owner, brickmaker and com-
pany director (he is chairman of the
Lever Company of Mac Fisheries).

A fully elaborated scheme is hard-
ly to be expected of him. His idea,
as he put it to me this afternoon,
is that a new atmosphere is needed
in industrial relations if the unem-
ployment problem is to be solved
and a reconciliation affected between-— ^
capital and labor.

THE U. S. SECRETARY OF
LABOR.

The member of President Hard-
ing's new Cabinet who is the centre
of more assorted difficulties than
any other is probably James John
Davis, the new Secretary of Labor.
“I have inherited ten or twelve con-
troversies — big controversies, too,”
he mentioned to an interviewer who
was permitted to share an office
luncheon in the middle of the Secre-
tary's day.

“The idea is (it is the President's
idea) to get to 'em before they burst
into trouble instead of after. Say,
it's like the Secretary of War tak-
ing office one day and finding a de-
claration of war on his hands the
next.”

Very interesting to the country at
large, but most interesting to the
associations of manufacturers and
workmen who are preparing for new
"Adjustments is the new Secretary's
“on wages and labor.

The interviewer from the Chicago
Tribune, quoted above, points out
that Mr. D^vis, although to-day re-
puted to be worth $2,000,000, was a
'—^ntarster puddler” at the age of six-
teen years. “My father was a pud-
dler, too, and so was his father, in
iron,” added the Secretary, and gave
this general resume of^ his view on
the wage and labor question:

Education and Trade.

“If we can give every child in
America at least a high-school edu-
cation and a trade our troubles will
be over. For with the trade he'll
have something to do, and with the
education he can reason out the
problems of his life, as well as be
dy for the chance to rise above
his transit' he is mentally capable
of something higher.

“I know that if a man does not get
fair wages and works too long hours
he's not going to become a good
citizen.

“Decent wages, decent hours,
make good citizenship. That's my
slogan. To realize them for myself
and others — that's been my life.”

Dominion Linens, Ltd., Mangling and Ironing Department, showing Callanders Hvdratu
hc Mangles, Folding and Measuring Machines. Total floor space about half acre

linon infilietvTT mnn J A J 1 • . ...

P. R. WOULD END GERRY-
MANDERING.

Ottawa.

Ronald Hooper, secretary of the
proportional representation society
of Canada, before the house commit-
tee on proportional representation
dealt with gerrymandering under the
single constituency system. Mr.
Hooper claimed that under P. R.,
gerrymandering would be impossible
and that a truer representation of
the public would be secured for
Parliament.

John Harold (Brant) said that P.
R. might result in the elimination of
some of the political parties, as was
once the case in Germany. This pos-
sibility was one of the objection to
the system.

Levi Thomson (Qu'Appelle) sug-
gested trying P. R. in a selected
group of constituencies as an experi-
ment. This was agreed to by Mr.
Hooper, who said that the expense
of training sufficient returning of-
ficers for the whole Dominion would
be large.

The linen industry was initiated
in Canada in 1902 by Mr. William
Berny, now Vice-President of the
Dominion Linens Limited, Guelph
Ontario. Previous to this time, how-
ever, there had been several at-
tempts at linen manufacture, and
mills established in different parts
of ^ Canada, but all had resulted in
failure. From the earliest period of
human history till almost the close
of the eighteenth century, linen
manufacture was one of the most ex-
tensive and widely disseminated of
the domestic industries of European
countries. It was most largely de-
veloped in Russia, Austria, Ger-
many, Holland, Belgium, Northern
France, certain parts of England,
the North of Ireland and through-
out Scotland. In the latter part
of the eighteenth century the inven-
tion of cotton spinning machinery
gave the linen weaving industry a
fatal blow. Domestic spinning and
weaving began to shrink and with
it hand loom weaving.

In 1815, at Darlington, England,
a machine was invented, which after
many improvements and modifica
tions has become the perfect sys-
tem of machinery with which at the

present day linen spinning mills are
furnished. The discovery of a pro-
cess for the mechanical spinning of
linen yarn for weaving into cloth
by power loom was much slower
than in the corresponding case of
cotton.

There are two branches in the
modern manufacture, spinning and
weaving, to which may be added
bleaching and various finishing pro-
cesses. The flax fibre is received
in bundles from the scutch mills and
after having been classed into vari-
ous grades according to the quality
of the material, is labelled and
placed in store ready for the flax
mill.

When the manufacture of linen in
Canada was successfully started, the
idea was to purchase yarns from the
Continental and Irish spinning mills,
who were being supplied with Rus-
sian flax, at a price much below
that for which flax could be grown
in Canada. As most of the linen
manufacturers in Ireland were weav-
ers only, buying their yarns from
spinners, it was thought quite pos-
sible and feasible that the same
method could be employed with suc-
cess in Canada, and prior to the war,

on these imported yarns to keep
their pirmts in operation.

In the mated

that Russia produced about 4^0^^
tons of flax, and other European

countries, including Great Britain
and Ireland, 100,000 tons.

With the complete collapse of
Russia in 1918, it became evident
that if the linen business was to be
continued in Canada, it would be
necessary to establish a spinning
plant here, to spin the Canadian
grown flax, which with the improved
methods of cultivation, were proven
equal to or better than the Russian
flax, on which the industry had re-
lied previous to the war. A modern
flax spinning plant, which would
complete the chain of linen manufac-
turers and make the business a
purely Canadian one has been in-
stalled at Guelph and is now in full
running order. This plant has been
equipped with the latest modern dry
and wet spinning systems. To se-
cure the highest quality of linen
yarns, workers were brought from
Belgium, via the C.P.R., who were
experienced in water retting flax,
similar to the finest Flemish and
Belgian flax which are used for pro-

, .. , . ’ ' , , Belgian im* wnicn are used lor r

the linen business depended entirely during the highest grade linens.

Mr. Harold suggested that the
voters' choice should be limited to
two candidates. Mr. Hooper replied
that the elector should have
many choices as there were candi
dates in his constituency.

as

To the Editor of the Canadian
Railroader:

April 19th, 1921.

Some time ago I had the pleasure
to call on you at your office, and
since then have had that of reading
the article on Immigration in the
Canadian Railroader of March 19.
It is very interesting and the com-
mon-sense of it should appeal to
everybody. I hope it has been read
and will be by many more. I have
passed my copy along to friends.

I told you at the time that I had

done a certain amount of writing on
the subject of “Water Transporta-
tion.” I am taking the pleasure of
sending you, under separate cover,
some of the said articles which I
trust you will find interesting read-
ing.

Yours truly,

J. N. CANTIN.

St. Joseph, Huron County, Ont.

The Robert Mitchell Co.,

LIMITED

BRASS AND IRON FOUNDERS
Good Workmanship and Prompt
Delivery

64 Belair Avenue,

MONTREAL

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THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

April 30, 1921

Canadian Railroader

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